Loose Change~ Montgomery De La Cruz / Zach Dempsey/Scott Reed

Part 4 Chapter 10a

tw: mentions of sexual assault, slightly sexual content

Three weeks passed.

Ophelia was released from the hospital. But the baby was not. According to the doctor, Justin, her son, wouldn't be released for two more months.

Ophelia had gone through a lot in her life, but hearing that her stress caused Justin to be in an incubator for months, causing him to have almost no skin contact and no one to hold him, might have been the most devastating thing ever.

But she had people around her to tell her that it wasn't her fault.

Justin was there, the older Justin. Tony was there. Zach was there. Estella was there. Marisa was there. Her parents were there, now that her father finally got a flight in from Mexico. Mr. and Mrs. Jensen were there.

And Scott was there.

Scott had worried Ophelia. He was distant at first while she was still in the hospital. But the hesitation went away. At least, it did as soon as the cords did. The cords and IVs that had previously wrapped around Ophelia's arms and injected her with medicine were gone, no longer needed. She was healing. And so was Scott.

He visited her everyday. And it filled Ophelia with more happiness than she could have known. He was around whenever she needed him, and she was lucky enough to never feel lonely. Not once in the hospital was she ever left alone.

But...he always left at the same time.

When she went to see the baby.

Justin, the baby, was four weeks old now, and Scott hadn't seen him once. And...he didn't seem to want to. Ophelia told herself he was more concerned for her than anything else. But there was a look in his eye whenever she spoke about the baby. Scott would get distance, and Ophelia didn't recognize the emotion playing in his eyes. But it wasn't one she liked on him.

But now, finally, she was out of the hospital. She was home. And apparently, so was everyone else. Her parents, Justin and his mother, Zach's family, Estella, Marisa. Everyone just suddenly started showing up all the time as she stayed on bed rest.

Scott wasn't a frequent visitor at her house though. He called her every night, and they spoke on the phone for hours, but he didn't come by that often in person. One reason being they both knew her mother wouldn't take kindly to another boy being around.

And he was dealing with legal trouble. He had been filing a motion against the school, which tried to terminate him. They claimed since he didn't quit in formal writing, it was a termination, not quitting. So he had been driving to the city everyday, trying to straighten out some paperwork. Mrs. Jensen went with him. She was his lawyer.

But besides all the obvious terrifying coincidences, Ophelia felt...okay.

Because even though her baby was at the hospital, he was safe. That was the safest place for it to be. And she was glad if anything went wrong, he was surrounded by professionals.

Because the people at her house...they were not professionals by any means.

Breast feed the baby. Bottle feed the baby. Let them cry. Don't let them cry. Do this, don't do that. Then the next person would tell her the complete opposite.

Ophelia wasn't even with the baby at home, and she already felt like she was so far behind in taking care of him.

Apparently, she was supposed to register the baby for preschool already. That's how long the waist list is for the good schools.

But Ophelia had a long extra week off spent resting at home where she debated everything. Actually, she wasn't resting. She was working. She needed clothes, diapers, formula. Since apparently even if she wanted to, she was taking too much medication to breastfeed, which only made her feel like more of a failure as a mother. Her body was designed to be able to nurse a baby, but it couldn't. There wasn't a moment that passed that Ophelia wasn't on her phone, online shopping or looking up articles about raising premature children.